Canning corned beef

March is almost here and Corned Beef will soon be on sale every where. Do you can that up too? How does it come out? Do you like it? I usually fix one up for St. Paddies Day and put a couple in the freezer. If you think they are good in jars I will try putting one up to see how we like it.

Shirley Wikstrom
Stevenson, Washington

Corned beef is very good when canned! It is tender and flavorful. And you can eat it, year around! Give it a try. I’m pretty sure you’ll love it. I do use wide mouth jars and can it in slices or chunks. — Jackie

Canning eggs

I have been looking for information on canning eggs, I don’t even care if I have to pickle them. Do you know how to do this right? Which way would extend the preservation time of the eggs more, canning them (I know that this has to be doable since you can find them canned in some stores but for an arm and a leg!) or covering them with oil and putting them in a cool dry place?

Martha Mooneyham
Champlin, Minnesota

You can home can pickled eggs, but not regular hardboiled eggs. To can them as pickled eggs (recipe found on page 124 of my book, Growing and Canning Your Own Food), here’s what you’ll do:

18 whole, hardboiled, peeled eggs
1½ quarts white vinegar
2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp whole allspice
1 Tbsp mixed pickling spices

Mix vinegar and spices in a large pot and bring to a boil. Pack whole, peeled, hardboiled eggs into hot, sterilized wide mouthed jars, leaving ½ inch of headspace. Ladle boiling pickling solution over eggs, leaving ½ inch of headspace. Remove air bubbles. Process for 25 minutes in a boiling water bath canner. If you live at an altitude above 1,000 feet, consult your canning book for directions on increasing your processing time to suit your altitude, if necessary. Never leave unsealed pickled eggs out at room temperature. You risk danger from botulism and other bacterial diseases. Always refrigerate opened jars of pickled eggs.

Other ways of storing eggs for long term storage include wiping them with mineral or olive oil, using a waterglass solution, and just storing fresh eggs in a cool, dark location where they’ll keep for several months. Always break long-term storage eggs into a cup first as you use them to make sure they are still fit to eat. — Jackie

6 COMMENTS

  1. I remember seeing my grandmother with a lard bucket of fresh eggs sitting on the counter in her kitchen. Dad said she never refrigerated her eggs. For long term, I haven’t a clue how she kept them.
    I wonder if you could pickle eggs in left over beet pickling brine. If they absorbed the red color, sliced on a salad, I think my gkids would think they were eating Easter eggs.

  2. Jackie,
    I was just reading your Q&A’s about canning eggs. One of my geology professors wrapped her eggs in Crisco when she was preparing to canoe the Yukon River. She said they were still edible a month later.

  3. Mike,

    I know about the pickled eggs and bologna set out on counters. Botulism is very rare, but it can and does occur. To be safest, don’t set out opened jars of pickled eggs or meats.

    Jackie

  4. Jackie, I just read your reply to canning eggs. Most every country store and convenience market in my part of Tennessee has a gallon jar of pickled eggs setting on the counter. None (or very few) are refrigerated… they do pickled bologna the same way. It was my understanding that once they were pickled, the could set out at room temp. Glad to know I was in error before I made a huge mistake.

    Enjoy your Q and A’s.

    Mike

  6. There are recipes for Beet pickled eggs and Dill pickled eggs in Carla Emery’s book Encyclopedia of Country Living. I’m still looking for mustard pickled eggs like at the Amish Resterants in Ohio.

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